A ventilator or respirator is an electric machine, today controlled by microprocessors, or a pneumatically driven machine for providing respiration for people whose own breathing is insufficient or has stopped. The respiratory gas is usually oxygenated. Depending on the field of application, a distinction is made between emergency, intensive care and home respirators. Anaesthetic machines are also specialised ventilators.
In ventilators, the respiratory gases are supplied to and returned from the person via fluid lines. Fluid lines of this kind are ideally lightweight and flexible, so as to achieve the greatest possible comfort for the patients.
Thin-walled fluid lines are known in the prior art which enclose helical reinforcement ribs intended to make the line more resistant to being crushed or becoming obstructed while still permitting a lightweight and flexible design of the fluid line.
DE 603 02 303 T2 discloses a line of this kind, comprising: at least one thin plastics material tape having a forward and a trailing side edge, the tape being arranged in a helical manner, the surface thereof being substantially parallel to the spiral axis, and the forward edge of each revolution of the tape overlapping, apart from at its ends, with the trailing edge of a previous revolution, and the trailing edge of each revolution of the tape underlapping the forward edge of a subsequent revolution, and a reinforcing bead of plastics material, which is arranged in the vicinity of the forward edge and between overlapping forward and trailing edges in each case, characterised in that the overlapping edge meets or substantially meets the underlapping tape at one edge of the bead.
DE 20 2012 007 386 U1 discloses a corrugated pipe for receiving supply lines of a medical installation, comprising an undulating inner pipe made of a first material and a tubular outer casing made of a second material, the outer casing forming a frictional connection or an interlocking connection with the inner pipe, at least at the peaks of the crests of the undulations of the inner pipe.
The fluid lines described above require many method steps during the production thereof and are therefore very expensive. Furthermore, these fluid lines have some tendency to kink since they have less dimensional stability and kink when a minimum bend radius is not reached. In addition, the fluid lines described above are somewhat inflexible and rigid, which is undesirable.
This is a situation which needs to be improved.